Robert H. Bork, the conservative jurist who fired Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox during the “Saturday Night Massacre” in 1973 and whose failed nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1987 sparked an enduring political schism over judicial nominations, died early Dec. 19. He was 85.

Sept. 15, 1987Judge Robert H. Bork, nominated by President Ronald Reagan to be an associate justice of the Supreme Court, is sworn in before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill at his confirmation hearing in Washington.John Duricka/AP

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